"The Alphazeds presents the characters of the alphabet as you have never seen them before. They turn out to be a rambunctious bunch who meet one another for the first time in a small yellow room. What has brought them here? Before the book is over, the astonishing secret that will change the world is revealed"--Jacket blurb.

Summary

Illustrated by Milton Glaser. The co-founder of New York magazine and creator of the globally recognised I Love New York logo, offers this beautifully designed, enchanting book for children. An empty room starts filling up with extraordinary looking letters. As each letter appears, it boldly announces its personality: A is angry, B is bashful, and K comes in kicking everyone else out of the way. Can such different letters ever learn to work together? Charming and utterly original, this design masterpiece will appeal to kids, parents and artists alike. 4-8.

Author Notes

Milton Glaser is an internationally known artist and illustrator. Born on June 26, 1929 in New York City, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He has had an eclectic career, starting the Push-Pin design studio in 1954 while teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Collections of his designs appear in book form, including Milton Glaser: Graphic Design and The Underground Gourmet Cookbook.

Glaser is perhaps best known for his creation of the I Love NY logo, but he has also created numerous other logos for various entities, including the one for Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize- winning play, Angels in America. In 1968 he co-founded New York magazine, and in 1974, his own company, Milton Glaser Inc. In 2004, Glaser won a National Design Award Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this alphabetical origin story, 26 personality types (i.e., typefaces) gather in an unfurnished room. First to arrive are Angry A, with knobby spikes on its cactus-like body, and Bashful B, a slender and shy blue Bodoni character. "What are you doing here?" demands A. "Excuse me" appears above B in a quiet thought bubble. Next to come are Confused C and Dynamic D, a dark-red extrovert who yells "Ta-da!" regardless of what the others say. Elegant E enters as a fancy black script letter ("I dare say, it's getting a bit crowded"), and Flamboyant F, a voluptuous tapestry shape, sniffs, "I seem to be the only one here who knows how to dress." The Glasers, a married pair, invent outlandish partygoers like Kicking K, which lashes out at the other guests with its lower extension, and an R that speaks in silly rhymes. Designer Milton Glaser has created many distinctive, streamlined graphics, such as the "I Love NY" logo, but he allows for clutter and some visual clumsiness here. A Babel of hand-printed chatter fills the sharp-cornered spread, which recalls a minimalist stage set, and the bustling space resembles the Marx Brothers' shipboard closet. In a mock-biblical ending, the letters W, O, R and Dynamic D (still saying "Ta-da!") suddenly get together: "In the beginning there was the word." Readers tired of the same old Courier and Helvetica can look for a T pictured in Torino, V in Venus and Z in Zapf. Production insiders will applaud the Glasers' unique performance. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 3-One by one, the letters of the alphabet enter a "big empty yellow room." From "Angry A" to "Zigzag Z," each one is described by an alliterative adjective. Eventually, the space is stuffed with a haphazard horde of loudmouthed letters, and dialogue balloons show their obnoxious comments. Finally, "The noise was terrible. Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs. Nobody cared about anyone else. They were pushing and shoving and hitting and kicking. It was a disaster." (The grammar here is a definite disaster.) Then the lone light bulb goes out and a vague voice says, "Let there be light." By the time it is restored, four letters have joined together, and the pretentious text reads, "In the beginning there was the WORD." After this faux finale, Glaser offers a cloying cast list with exasperating entries such as "Yelling Y was last year's youngest Grammy winner for his yodeling version of `Yesterday.' This Yankee from Yonkers is a graduate of Yale." Underneath, another alphabet introduces a variety of typefaces. This befuddling book is more appropriate for graphics-obsessed grown-ups than for children. Bill Martin, Jr.'s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (S & S, 1989) offers more bang for the buck.-Bina Williams, Bridgeport Public Library, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.